"Liberty is not a means to a political end. It is itself the highest political end." -Lord Acton

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Minority Rights, Baby

I'm taking a political science course on the rise and (sometimes) fall of various communist regimes. The audience is full of familiar faces: College Republicans spoiling for a fight, goateed idealists and *ahem* a libertarian.

Today, the professor gave a fascinating lecture about Marxism. According to Marx, he told us, the transition to socialism (and ultimately to communism, the end of history) would take place once the capitalist system had reached a critical stage at which a few wealthy capitalists exploited the extremely poor laboring masses. Under socialism, the common people — now sufficiently class-conscious to despise their capitalists overlords — would gain dictatorial control and use the forces of production in their best collective interest.

At this point, a hand shot up. A student in the back of the room, clutching her pen and notebook, looking slightly upset, asked: “Didn’t Marx have any notion of protecting minority rights within the proletariat-majority state?”

And that was the funniest thing I heard all day. Cross-posted at Liberty Belles.